Ling Wang

The 4thDeep Water Circulation Research Conference was held on the end of May, 2023 in the pretty city of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. The weather was sunny and warm in Edinburgh that we enable to completely enjoy this beautiful city. Thanks to GLOMAR funding, it was the first time of my PhD period to take participate in an international conference that brought together more than 60 participants. The main aim of this meeting is to discuss, exchange and advance the understanding of deepwater circulation and its effects on the seafloor and sediments. The topics of the conference contain bottom currents, contourites, process interaction, global interactions, hazards, sediment routing, seismics and subsurface, which are quite interesting and totally related to my PhD project.

I got an opportunity to present a poster of my first-year research at thisconference, the topic of this poster is related the role of bottom currents in shaping the continental slope off NW Ireland, Rockall Basin. The quantity of participants at the 4thDWC was not relatively large which made the network easy and I was really glad to have such face-to-face scientific and non-scientific communications with contourite peers.Between coffee break and at lunch or dinner, I had meaningfully discussions about my poster and gained numerous feedbacks that helped me gather ideas for my next research. It was an amazing journey for me that I met renowned scientists with several decades’ experience and some of them I read their articles many times before, they are so kind to share some valuable insights on how to thrive in my early career stage. In addition, the oral presentations were particularly wonderful, they exhibited contourite research from various aspects with different research methods that greatly broaden my career perspectives. Through some typical examples presentedclosely related to my research of interest, I learned the formation process of contourites and how to interpret the seismic data.

Besides the meeting time, I also enjoyed the arranged excursions. One was visiting the old-town Edinburgh around the streets constructed by special building stones, and I was immediately immersed in the historical cultures of Edinburgh. Anotheronewasa1- ayfieldtriptothefamous‘Hutton’s unconformity’ outcrop at Siccar Point, Berwickshire. At the place, I learnt Jame Hutton was a marvellous geologist to realise the cyclical earth process at that period. The scenery there was definitely the most beautiful I've ever seen.

In total, thanks to GLOMAR, IAS and research group fundings, I had this precious chance to enjoy the trip to UK. I highly recommend this conference to other students who have chances. It deserves!